moralisticadj.

1845 U.S. Mag. & Democratic Rev. 16 473/2 The moralistic and pietistic cant of the present day, is the last thing that ought to have any place in the world.

1865 J. Grote Treat. Moral Ideals (1876) 108 Those words..by frequent commonplace and moralistic enlarging upon, have lost much of their warmth and force.

1876 E. C. Stedman Victorian Poets 242 Several moralistic poets date from this early period—Mitford, Trench, Alford, and others of a like religious mood.

1889 W. B. Carpenter Permanent Elem. Relig. vi. 211 Such an action is moralistic rather than moral, for it has not been prompted by the sentiment of goodness.

1934 Times Lit. Suppl. 7 June 398/2 Carlyle's failure to impose his narrow, rigoristic, moralistic, joyless Annandale view of the world upon the world, added an element of tragedy to his deeply tragic sense of life.

1986 R. Cameron Portage viii. 122 It is an unenviable task to have to write guidelines for the behaviour of others, and..it is difficult to avoid a moralistic tone!